This decade looks set to be the hottest on record and this year is almost certain to be the seventh warmest worldwide since 1850.
Eight years in the past decade are in the world’s ten hottest, according to Met Office statistics released to coincide with Bali conference.
In the UK 2007 is expected to be the third hottest since nationwide records began in 1914. In this set of data, the past six years are all in the top six.
Myles Allen, of the University of Oxford, went as far as to say that the statistics were as good as telling politicians and bureaucrats: “We told you so. These figures come as no surprise to climate scientists,” he said. “Global temperatures are rising almost exactly as we predicted they would more than 15 years ago as a result of human activity.
He added: “While there is still plenty of work to be done on the implications, the scientific debate over whether rising greenhouse gas levels are the principal cause of this warming has effectively been dead for years, despite the heroic efforts of some sections of the media to keep it on life support.”
Its not just the media either. The dinosaurs are still out there grazing….